Dear Christian Indies,
This week we are returning to our Writing Craft series with an episode focused on curing the dreaded tendency to info dump in your work.
If you’ve ever attempted to read a book that is full of the infamous info dump, you’ll certainly understand why this particular writer faux pas causes books to end up on my “Did Not Finish” (DNF) pile.
But maybe you’re not sure what I mean when I speak of info dumping. Just in case, I’ve lifted the following definition from The Cambridge Dictionary:
infodump
noun [ C or U ] (also info dump, info-dump)
US /ˈɪn.foʊˌdʌmp/ UK /ˈɪn.fəʊˌdʌmp/
the practice of giving too much information at the same time, or a piece of writing that does this:
- The piece is a massive, unenlightening info-dump, containing paragraph after paragraph of brain-bending detail.
- Any writer must balance infodump with telling the reader too little.
There’s a lot that goes into a discussion about infodumping, including the fact that info dumping is actually an expectation for some genres! I hope that you will join us for a discussion on how we can dump the dump when necessary, and save our own books from ending up on the DNF pile!
See you there,
Jamie
